2011 NHL All-Star Game Rosters

Coming into this All-Star Draft, I was intrigued by the idea of this fantasy draft and interested to see it. After watching it, I hope the NHL uses this format for years to come. That was fascinating television. You had some of the best hockey players in the world being paraded around like 2nd graders on national television with a smarmy host trying to create conflict. TSN's James Duthie did an excellent job by the way. Not only did he need to fly by the seat of his pants with little time to adapt, but he succeeded and played the role the host needed to play to make this entertaining television. Anyway, here are the 2011 NHL All-Star teams.

Team Staal

F - Eric Staal
F - Ryan Kesler
F - Alexander Ovechkin
F - Daniel Sedin
F - Rick Nash
F - Patrick Sharp
F - Jeff Skinner
F - Claude Giroux
F - Corey Perry
F - Patrik Elias
F - David Backes
F - Paul Stastny

D - Mike Green
D - Zdeno Chara
D - Marc Staal
D - Dan Boyle
D - Kris Letang
D - Erik Karlsson

G - Cam Ward
G - Henrik Lundqvist
G - Carey Price

Team Staal Rookies

Logan Couture
Tyler Ennis
Michael Grabner
Jamie McBain
Tyler Seguin
P.K. Subban

Team Staal Coaches

Joel Quenneville and Mike Haviland

Team Lidstrom

F - Patrick Kane
F - Martin St. Louis
F - Steven Stamkos
F - Henrik Sedin
F - Danny Briere
F - Jonathan Toews
F - Brad Richards
F - Martin Havlat
F - Anze Kopitar
F - Matt Duchene
F - Loui Eriksson
F - Phil Kessel

D - Niklas Lidstrom
D - Duncan Keith
D - Shea Weber
D - Dustin Byfuglien
D - Keith Yandle
D - Brent Burns

G - Tim Thomas
G - Marc-Andre Fleury
G - Jonas Hiller

Team Lidstrom rookies

Evgeny Dadonov
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Cam Fowler
Taylor Hall
Kevin Shattenkirk
Derek Stepan

Team Lidstrom coaches,

Peter Laviolette
Alain Vigneault

Even though my boy Giroux is on Team Staal, I think I have to root for Team Lidstrom in this one. They have my boys Laviolette and Briere, and overall, the team is slightly less douchier than Team Staal. Plus P.K. Subban ended up on the Staal rookie team. Even if Subban is not playing on Sunday, that fact alone makes me lean to Team Lidstrom.

SuperSkills competition tomorrow, and All-Star game on Sunday. This should be a pretty entertaining weekend of hockey, even if it is all just one big exhibition.

All-Star Weekend Schedule

I guess I should have tried to put this up earlier in the week, but I found myself busy with school and other blogging matters. I remember as a young teenager growing up when ABC would have the NHL All-Star game and the Pro Bowl on the exact same day. Those were good times, indeed. And now, it is happening once again, only the NHL All-Star Game is on Versus and the Pro Bowl is on Fox. And yes, I will have a live blog up this weekend for both all star games (though not the NHL fantasy draft and skills competition). Now without further ado, here is your schedule for All-Star weekend! (all times ET)

Friday, January 28

NHL All-Star Player Fantasy Draft 8:00 (Versus) (TSN)

Saturday, January 29

NHL SuperSkills Competition: Team Lidstrom vs. Team Staal 7:00 (Versus - Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, SR: Charissa Thompson and Bob Harwood) (CBC - Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy, SR: Elliotte Friedman and Bob Harwood)

Sunday, January 30

58th annual NHL All Star Game: Team Lidstrom vs. Team Staal 4:00 (Versus - Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, SR: Charissa Thompson and Bob Harwood) (CBC - Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy, SR: Elliotte Friedman and Scott Oake)
2011 Pro Bowl: AFC vs. NFC 7:00 (Fox - Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick, and Terry Bradshaw, SR: Tony Siragusa and Jay Glazer)

I was late in getting this up, and even though I tried to search for it, I have been unable to dig deep enough in the archives of certain reliable blogs to find press releases where it is announced exactly what personnel CBC will be using this weekend. I am assuming that Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson will be the ones in the booth, but if anyone can confirm this and point me towards a link as well as list any and all "sideline reporters", I will greatly appreciate.